The Underground Railroad was a secret network of hidden paths and safe places that helped enslaved people escape from the Southern United States to free states in the North and to Eastern Canada during the time when slavery was legal. Some enslaved people tried to run away as early as the 16th century, but many did not get help. A more organized system of safe houses, called the Underground Railroad, began forming in the 1780s among groups in the North who wanted to end slavery. This network expanded northward and continued growing until President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Most escapees aimed to reach free states, and some later traveled to Canada.

The Underground Railroad started at the places where enslaved people lived. Travelers used natural and man-made paths, such as rivers, canals, bays, the Atlantic Coast, ferries, roads, and trails. Many escapes happened near ports, free territories, and international borders.

The network was mainly run by free and enslaved African Americans, with help from people who supported the goal of ending slavery. Enslaved people who escaped and those who helped them were called passengers and conductors, respectively. Some routes led to Mexico, where slavery was already banned, and to Caribbean islands that did not participate in the slave trade. Another route ran south toward Florida, which was controlled by Spain (except from 1763 to 1783), and existed from the late 17th century until about 1790. During the American Civil War, some enslaved people escaped to Union lines in the South to gain freedom. One estimate says about 100,000 enslaved people had escaped through the network by 1850. According to former professor of Pan-African studies J. Blaine Hudson, who was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Louisville, by the end of the Civil War, 500,000 or more African Americans had freed themselves through the Underground Railroad.

Origin of the name

Eric Foner wrote that the term "underground railroad" was perhaps first used by a Washington newspaper in 1839, quoting a young enslaved person who wanted to escape using a railroad that "went underground all the way to Boston." Dr. Robert Clemens Smedley noted that after slave catchers failed to find escaped slaves as far north as Columbia, Pennsylvania, they said in confusion that "there must be an underground railroad somewhere," which led to the term being used. Scott Shane wrote that the first documented use of the term appeared in an article by Thomas Smallwood in the August 10, 1842, edition of Tocsin of Liberty, an abolitionist newspaper published in Albany. He also wrote that the 1879 book Sketches in the History of the Underground Railroad mentioned the phrase was used in an 1839 Washington newspaper article. The book's author stated that 40 years later, he had quoted the article from memory as accurately as possible.

Terminology

People who helped others escape slavery through the Underground Railroad used special words based on the idea of a railway. For example:

The Big Dipper, which has a part called the "bowl" that points to the North Star, was sometimes called the "drinking gourd." The Railroad was often referred to as the "freedom train" or "Gospel train," which traveled toward "Heaven" or "the Promised Land," meaning Canada.

Political background

Many enslaved people who traveled the Underground Railroad aimed to reach Canada as their final destination. Between 30,000 and 40,000 of these individuals settled in Canada, with about half arriving between 1850 and 1860. Others chose to live in free states in the northern United States. From the Revolutionary War to the Civil War, thousands of court cases involved enslaved people who had escaped.

Under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, officials in free states were required to help slaveholders or their agents recapture escaped enslaved people. However, some states passed laws to stop this practice. This law made it easier for slaveholders and slave catchers to capture African Americans and return them to slavery. In some cases, free Black people were also enslaved. The law also encouraged abolitionists to work harder to help enslaved people, leading to the growth of anti-slavery groups and the Underground Railroad.

After the Mexican–American War, Southern politicians pushed for the Compromise of 1850, which included a stricter Fugitive Slave Law. This law forced officials in free states to assist slave catchers and gave them legal protection to operate in those states. Because the law required little proof to claim someone was an escaped enslaved person, slave catchers kidnapped free Black individuals, including children, and sold them into slavery. Southern politicians often claimed that many enslaved people escaped due to Northern interference with Southern property rights. The law also prevented people accused of being enslaved from defending themselves in court, making it hard to prove they were free. In response, some Northern states passed laws called personal liberty laws, which banned public officials from capturing or imprisoning formerly enslaved people. Many people believed that Northern states ignored the fugitive slave laws, and this belief became a reason given for Southern states leaving the Union.

Routes and methods of escape

The Underground Railroad had routes that led to free states, Canada, the Caribbean, the western territories of the United States, and the Indian territories. Some escaped slaves traveled south into Mexico for freedom. Many escaped by sea, including Ona Judge, who had been enslaved by President George Washington. Historians believe the waterways of the South were important for freedom seekers because they provided paths to freedom. Historians also found 200,000 runaway slave advertisements in North American newspapers from the mid-1700s until the end of the American Civil War. Freedom seekers in Alabama hid on steamboats heading to Mobile, Alabama, to blend in with the city's free Black community. They also hid on other steamboats leaving Alabama that traveled northward to free territories and states. In 1852, Alabama passed a law to reduce the number of freedom seekers escaping on boats. The law punished slaveholders and boat captains if they allowed enslaved people on board without a pass. Freedom seekers in Alabama also made canoes to escape. Some freedom seekers escaped from enslavers in Panama on boats heading to California through the Panama route. Slaveholders used the Panama route to reach California. In Panama, slavery was illegal, and Black Panamanians encouraged enslaved people from the United States to escape to the city of Panama. Freedom seekers used methods to avoid being tracked by slave catchers' bloodhounds. One method was using a mix of hot pepper, lard, and vinegar on their shoes. In North Carolina, freedom seekers used turpentine on their shoes to stop dogs from tracking their scent. In Texas, escapees used paste made from a charred bullfrog. Other runaways hid in swamps to wash off their scent. Most escapes happened at night when runaways could hide in the darkness. To avoid capture, freedom seekers carried forged free passes. During slavery, free Black people showed proof of their freedom by carrying passes. Free Black people and enslaved people created forged passes to help freedom seekers travel through slave states.

North to free states and Canada

The Underground Railroad was not literally underground or a railroad. The first real underground railroad was not built until 1863. John Rankin said it was called a railroad because people who used it disappeared from public view, just as if they had gone underground. Once enslaved people reached a station on the Underground Railroad, there was no way to track them. They were moved secretly from one station to another until they reached a place where they could be free. The term "railroad" was used because it was the transportation system people knew at the time.

The Underground Railroad had no central office, leaders, or published maps, guides, or articles. It relied on secret meeting places, hidden paths, and safe homes, all managed by people who opposed slavery. These groups shared information by speaking to each other, though some may have used a number code to send messages. Most people worked in small, separate groups to keep their activities hidden. Enslaved people traveled north from one safe stop to the next. "Conductors" who helped them came from many backgrounds, including free Black people, white abolitionists, formerly enslaved individuals, and Native Americans. Many Christians, such as members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Congregationalists, and others, supported the cause. Free Black people played a vital role in helping enslaved people escape safely. Groups of helpers worked together in organizations called vigilance committees.

Black communities in states like Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York helped freedom seekers escape slavery. Black churches and homes in the North provided shelter for those fleeing. Historian Cheryl Janifer Laroche wrote that Black people, both enslaved and free, were the main actors in the Underground Railroad. She noted that some stories focus too much on white abolitionists and overlook the work of free Black communities. Historian Diane Miller explained that many traditional accounts have ignored the efforts of African Americans to gain freedom, instead showing the Underground Railroad as a movement led by white religious groups. Historian Larry Gara said that some stories about the Underground Railroad are more like folklore than real history. He argued that the achievements of people like Harriet Tubman, Thomas Garrett, and Levi Coffin are sometimes exaggerated, and that the focus on Northern abolitionists as heroes downplays the efforts of enslaved people to free themselves.

Geography

The Underground Railroad was helped a lot by the geography of the U.S.–Canada border. States like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and most of New York were separated from Canada by water, which made it easier and safer to move people across. The main path for freedom seekers from the South went up the Appalachian Mountains, through Harpers Ferry, and into the Western Reserve region of northeastern Ohio. From there, they traveled to the shore of Lake Erie and crossed to Canada by boat. Some freedom seekers used other routes, such as through New York or New England, passing through places like Syracuse (where Samuel May lived) and Rochester, New York (where Frederick Douglass lived). They crossed the Niagara River or Lake Ontario into Canada. By 1848, the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge was built across the Niagara River, connecting New York to Canada. Enslaved people used the bridge to escape, and Harriet Tubman used it to help others reach freedom. Some freedom seekers traveled through the New York Adirondacks, sometimes passing through Black communities like Timbuctoo, New York. They entered Canada via Ogdensburg, on the St. Lawrence River, or via Lake Champlain (with help from Joshua Young). Another route, used by John Brown, went west from Missouri to free Kansas and north to free Iowa, then east through Chicago to the Detroit River.

Thomas Downing was a free Black man in New York who ran an oyster restaurant that served as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Freedom seekers (runaway slaves) hiding from enslavers stayed in the basement of his restaurant. Enslaved people helped freedom seekers escape. Arnold Gragstone was enslaved and guided runaways across the Ohio River to freedom.

William Still, sometimes called "The Father of the Underground Railroad," helped hundreds of enslaved people escape, sometimes as many as 60 a month. He often hid them in his home in Philadelphia. He kept detailed records, including short stories about the people, using railway metaphors. He also helped communicate between escaped people and those still in slavery. He later published these stories in a book called The Underground Railroad: Authentic Narratives and First-Hand Accounts (1872), which helped historians understand how the system worked and how people escaped.

According to Still, messages were often hidden in plain sight. For example, the message "I have sent via at two o'clock four large hams and two small hams" meant four adults and two children were sent by train from Harrisburg to Philadelphia. The word "via" showed the passengers were not on the usual train but traveled through Reading, Pennsylvania. This tricked authorities into looking at the regular train station, while Still met the escapees at the correct station and guided them to safety. They then traveled north or to Canada, where slavery had been abolished in the 1830s.

To stay safe, many people on the Underground Railroad only knew their part of the operation. "Conductors" helped move "passengers" from one stop to another. Sometimes, a conductor would pretend to be enslaved to enter a plantation and lead runaways to freedom. Enslaved people often traveled at night, covering about 10–20 miles (16–32 km) to reach a station. They rested there during the day, and messages were sent to the next station to prepare for their arrival. Stations were often in basements, barns, churches, or caves.

The places where freedom seekers could rest and eat were called "stations" and "depots" and were managed by "station masters." People who gave money or supplies were called "stockholders." Fugitives used Bible references to describe Canada as the "Promised Land" or "Heaven" and the Ohio River as the "River Jordan," which marked the line between slave and free states.

Traveling conditions

Freedom seekers often traveled on foot or by wagon, sometimes lying down and covered with hay or similar materials, in small groups of one to three people. Some groups were much larger. Abolitionist Charles Turner Torrey and his helpers rented horses and wagons to transport as many as 15 or 20 people at a time. Free and enslaved Black men who worked as mariners (sailors) helped enslaved people escape by offering rides on their ships, sharing information about safe escape routes, and identifying safe places on land and trusted people who could help. Enslaved African-American mariners also shared news about slave revolts in the Caribbean with enslaved people in American ports. Free and enslaved African-American mariners supported Harriet Tubman during her rescue missions by giving her information about escape routes and helping her during her journeys. In New Bedford, Massachusetts, freedom seekers hid on ships leaving the docks with the help of Black and white crew members, hiding in the ships' cargo as they traveled to freedom.

Enslaved people near rivers used boats and canoes to escape. In 1855, Mary Meachum, a free Black woman, tried to help eight or nine enslaved people cross the Mississippi River near St. Louis, Missouri, to reach the free state of Illinois. White antislavery activists and an African American guide named "Freeman" helped with the escape. However, the plan failed because police and slave catchers learned about it and were waiting on the Illinois side. Mary Meachum, her husband John, and others were arrested. Before this attempt, Mary Meachum and her husband had worked on the Underground Railroad, helping enslaved people cross the Mississippi River to freedom.

Escape routes were often indirect to confuse those chasing freedom seekers. Most escapes involved individuals or small groups, though sometimes large groups, like in the Pearl incident, attempted to flee together. The journey was especially hard for women and children. Children sometimes struggled to stay quiet or keep up with a group. Enslaved women were rarely allowed to leave the plantation, making it harder for them to escape as men could. Despite these challenges, some women succeeded. Harriet Tubman, a woman who escaped slavery, was one of the most famous and successful conductors, helping others reach freedom.

Because of the danger of being discovered, information about escape routes and safe places was shared by word of mouth. In 1896, a code made up of numbers was used to hide messages. Southern newspapers often had pages of notices offering rewards for capturing runaway slaves. Federal marshals and professional slave catchers chased freedom seekers as far as the Canada–U.S. border.

Freedom seekers foraged, fished, and hunted for food during their journey. They made one-pot meals, such as stews, using a cooking method from West Africa. Enslaved and free Black people left food outside their homes to help freedom seekers. These meals became part of the food traditions known as soul food among Black Americans.

Maroons

Most people who escaped slavery did not receive help from abolitionists. While some stories describe black and white abolitionists assisting freedom seekers, many escapes happened without outside help.

Other ways freedom seekers traveled during the Underground Railroad included maroon communities. These were secret places, such as wetlands or marshes, where escaped slaves created their own independent groups. In the United States, examples include the Black Seminole communities in Florida, groups in the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia, and others in the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia and Florida. In the 1780s, a maroon community existed in the bayous of Saint Malo, Louisiana. The leader of this group was Jean Saint Malo, a freedom seeker who lived among other runaways in the swamps. This community had about fifty people, but the Spanish colonial government ended it. On June 19, 1784, Jean Saint Malo was executed.

In colonial South Carolina, maroon settlements were found in marshland areas of the Lowcountry and near rivers. These groups fought to stay free and avoid enslavement in places like Ashepoo in 1816, Williamsburg County in 1819, Georgetown in 1820, Jacksonborough in 1822, and near Marion in 1861. Historian Herbert Aptheker found evidence that fifty maroon communities existed in the United States between 1672 and 1864. The history of maroons shows how enslaved people resisted slavery by living in free, independent settlements. Historian Dan Sayer noted that some historians give less attention to maroon communities and instead focus more on the role of white people in the Underground Railroad, which he says may reflect a racial bias and a failure to fully recognize the strength of Black resistance and independence.

Freedom routes into Native American lands

From colonial times until the 19th century, Indigenous peoples of North America helped enslaved Africans escape to freedom. However, some Indigenous groups did not support freedom seekers, and a few even captured them or sent them back to their enslavers. The earliest records of enslaved people escaping date to the 16th century. In 1526, Spanish settlers created the first European colony in the continental United States in South Carolina, called San Miguel de Gualdape. Enslaved Africans there rebelled and may have fled to Shakori Indigenous communities. By 1689, enslaved people in South Carolina’s Lowcountry region escaped to Spanish Florida to find freedom. The Seminole Nation welcomed Gullah runaways (now known as Black Seminoles) into their lands. This route, part of the Underground Railroad, connected Georgia and the Carolinas to Florida through Seminole territory. In Northwest Ohio during the 18th and 19th centuries, the Shawnee, Ottawa, and Wyandot nations helped freedom seekers escape slavery. The Ottawa protected runaways in their villages and sent some to Fort Malden. In Upper Sandusky, the Wyandot allowed a maroon community called Negro Town to exist on their land for 40 years.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Nanticoke people near the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware hid freedom seekers in their villages. The Nanticoke lived near the Pocomoke River, which flows from the Great Cypress Swamp in southern Sussex County, Delaware. Enslaved people escaping slavery could hide in swamps, where water helped mask their scent, making it harder for dogs to track them. Mixed-blood communities formed as early as the 18th century. In Maryland, freedom seekers fled to Shawnee villages along the Potomac River. Slaveholders in Virginia and Maryland often complained to courts about the Shawnee and Nanticoke for sheltering runaways. The Odawa also accepted freedom seekers, later sending them to the Ojibwe, who guided them to Canada. Some escaped enslaved people remained in Native American communities. White settlers traveling to Kentucky and the Ohio Territory saw "Black Shawnees" living with Indigenous people in the trans-Appalachian west. During the colonial era in New Spain and in the Seminole Nation in Florida, African Americans and Indigenous people formed marriages.

South to Florida and Mexico

In the 16th century, Spanish people brought enslaved Africans to New Spain, including Mission Nombre de Dios, which later became part of St. Augustine in Spanish Florida. Over time, free Afro-Spaniards took up jobs and served in the colonial militia. After King Charles II of Spain declared Spanish Florida a safe place for escaped slaves from British North America, hundreds of enslaved people fled from as far north as New York to Florida. The Spanish built Fort Mose in 1738 for free Black people in the St. Augustine area.

In 1806, enslaved people arrived at the Stone Fort in Nacogdoches, Texas, with a forged passport from a Kentucky judge. The Spanish refused to return them to the United States. More enslaved people traveled through Texas the following year.

Enslaved people could gain freedom by crossing the border from the United States into Mexico, which was a Spanish colony until the 19th century. In the United States, enslaved people were considered property. This meant they could not marry, be sold away from their partners, or avoid cruel punishment. In New Spain, runaway slaves were recognized as humans. They could join the Catholic Church, marry, and were protected from cruel punishment.

During the War of 1812, U.S. Army general Andrew Jackson invaded Spanish Florida because enslaved people had fled from plantations in the Carolinas and Georgia to Florida. Some of the runaways joined the Black Seminoles, who later moved to Mexico. However, Mexico had mixed policies on slavery. At times, it allowed enslaved people to be returned to slavery and permitted Americans to move into Spanish territories to establish cotton plantations, bringing enslaved people to work the land.

In 1829, Mexican president Vicente Guerrero, who was a mixed-race Black man, officially ended slavery in Mexico. Freedom seekers from Southern plantations in the Deep South, including Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas (then part of Mexico), escaped to Mexico. The Texas Revolution, partly aimed at legalizing slavery, led to the creation of the Republic of Texas in 1836. After the Battle of San Jacinto, some enslaved people left the Houston area with the Mexican army, seeing the troops as a way to escape slavery. When Texas joined the United States in 1845, it became a slave state, and the Rio Grande became the border with Mexico.

Tensions between free and slave states increased as Mexico abolished slavery and more western states joined the Union as free states. As more free states were added, the influence of slave state representatives in Congress decreased.

The Southern Underground Railroad operated through slave states but lacked the organized groups and abolitionist societies found in the North. People who opposed slavery faced threats, physical harm, or execution. Slave catchers searched for runaways. Few free Black people lived in Texas, making them feel unsafe. The path to freedom was informal, unpredictable, and dangerous.

During the Mexican-American War of the 1840s, U.S. military forts along the Rio Grande border captured and returned fleeing enslaved people to their owners.

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 made it illegal to help enslaved people escape in free states. The United States government also sought a treaty with Mexico to capture and return escaped slaves. Mexico continued allowing enslaved people who crossed its border to remain free. Despite this, slave catchers illegally crossed into Mexico to capture Black people and return them to slavery. A group of slave hunters became the Texas Rangers.

Routes

Many people seeking freedom traveled along a path from the southern United States to Texas and eventually to Mexico. Enslaved individuals often walked or rode horses through rough and difficult land while being chased by law enforcement and slave hunters. Some hid on ferries traveling from New Orleans, Louisiana, and Galveston, Texas, to Mexican ports. Others carried cotton on wagons to Brownsville, Texas, and then crossed into Mexico near Matamoros.

Sometimes, people would come along and encourage others to run north to gain freedom. Many people laughed at this idea.

Travelers often passed through North Carolina, Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, or Mississippi before reaching Texas and Mexico. Some fled slavery from Indian Territory, which is now Oklahoma. Black Seminoles traveled from Florida through a southwestern route into Mexico.

Traveling overland required crossing the Nueces Strip, a stretch of land between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande. This area was very hot and hard to travel through, with little shade and no safe drinking water. Those who had a horse and a gun were more likely to survive the journey.

In 2010, the National Park Service found a route from Natchitoches, Louisiana, to Monclova, Mexico, which is similar to the southern part of the Underground Railroad. It is also believed that El Camino Real de los Tejas was used by freedom seekers. This trail was named a National Historic Trail by President George W. Bush in 2004.

Assistance

Some people traveled alone without help, while others received support from people along the southern Underground Railroad. This support included showing the way, giving directions, offering a place to stay, and providing food and other supplies.

Black people, Black and white couples, and anti-slavery German immigrants helped enslaved individuals, but most of the assistance came from Mexican laborers. Because of this, enslavers began to distrust Mexican people, and a law was made in Texas that said Mexicans could not speak to enslaved people. Mexican workers who lived near enslaved people often shared information about crossing the border and showed kindness. When enslavers and townspeople in Texas discovered that Mexicans were helping enslaved people escape, they forced Mexican workers out of town, whipped them in public, or killed them.

Some border officials in Mexico helped enslaved people cross into the country. In Monclova, Mexico, a border official collected money from townspeople to help a family get food, clothes, and money to continue their journey south and stay safe from slave hunters. After crossing the border, some Mexican officials helped formerly enslaved people avoid being sent back to the United States by slave hunters.

Enslaved people who traveled by ferry to Mexican ports were helped by Mexican ship captains. One captain was caught in Louisiana and charged with helping enslaved people escape.

Because of the dangers of running away or helping someone escape, people were careful to hide their actions. Few public or personal records about enslaved people who ran away exist. More records are available from people who supported slavery or tried to catch runaway enslaved individuals. More than 2,500 escapes are documented by the Texas Runaway Slave Project at Stephen F. Austin State University.

Southern freedom seekers

Advertisements were placed in newspapers offering rewards for the return of their "property." People who caught runaway slaves traveled through Mexico. Black Seminoles, also known as Los Mascogos, lived in northern Mexico and fought against those who tried to capture them.

Sam Houston, president of the Republic of Texas, owned a man named Tom, who ran away. He went to Texas and joined the Mexican army there.

One enslaved man had the letter "R" burned onto each side of his cheek after trying to escape slavery. He tried again in the winter of 1819 by leaving his enslaver's cotton plantation on a horse. With four others, he traveled southwest toward Mexico, facing dangers like attacks by Native Americans, slave catchers, or "horse-eating alligators."

Many people did not reach Mexico safely. In 1842, a Mexican man and an enslaved woman left Jackson County, Texas, on two horses. They were caught at the Lavaca River. The enslaved woman was returned to slavery because she was valuable to her owner. Her husband, who may have been a farm worker or indentured servant, was killed quickly by a mob.

Fugitive slaves in Mexico changed their names, married into Mexican families, and moved further south across the American-Mexican border. These actions made it difficult to track where formerly enslaved people went. A database at Stephen F. Austin State University keeps records of runaway slave advertisements as part of The Texas Runaway Slave Project. During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration started the Federal Writers' Project to collect stories from enslaved people, including those who settled in Mexico. One of these stories was from Felix Haywood, who found freedom by crossing the Rio Grande.

Rio Grande stations

Two families, the Webbers and the Jacksons, lived near the Rio Grande and helped people escape slavery. The husbands were white men, and the wives were Black women who had once been enslaved. It is not known if Nathaniel Jackson bought the freedom of Matilda Hicks and her family, but in the early 1860s, they moved to Hidalgo County, where they settled and lived together. Nathaniel was a white man from the South, and Matilda was a woman who had been enslaved. They had been childhood friends in Alabama. Nathaniel was the son of Matilda’s former owner, who helped seven families and others cross into Mexico in 1857.

Silvia Hector Webber was born enslaved in West Florida. In 1819, she was sold to a slaveholder in Clark County, Arkansas. The slaveholder’s son, John Cryer, brought Silvia to Mexican Texas in 1828, even though Mexico had made the slave trade illegal in its territory four years earlier. Silvia, with the help of John Webber, obtained freedom papers for herself and her three children in 1834. Silvia and John lived against slavery and often helped escaped slaves by sheltering them in their home and ranch. Silvia used a ferry she was allowed to operate at her ranch to help freedom seekers cross into Mexico.

John Ferdinand Webber, born in Vermont, lived along the Rio Grande with his wife, Silvia Hector Webber. Together, they helped enslaved people cross the Rio Grande. The Jacksons and Webbers, who both operated licensed ferry services, were well known to people fleeing slavery.

Arrival in Mexico

Black freedom seekers who arrived in Mexico faced uncertain futures because of Mexican immigration rules. The law required that anyone entering the country and wanting to stay must get a visa. Formerly enslaved Africans could not obtain a visa because the application needed proof from their home country. Although the visa rules made it harder for them to stay legally and increased the risk of being caught by slave catchers until 1857, when the rule was removed, some freedom seekers gained a special citizenship status by joining the Mexican military, becoming godparents to Mexican children, or marrying into Mexican families.

Mexican people also helped formerly enslaved Africans by providing support and protecting them from being caught again. In one example, officials and civilians in Piedras Negras, Mexico, refused to follow fugitive slave laws and sent away American slave catchers who tried to recapture freed Africans. When formerly enslaved Africans were at risk of being sent back or caught, Mexican people supported them and worked to help them stay legally in the country. In most cases, the Mexican government recognized formerly enslaved Africans as citizens, allowing them to remain in Mexico.

Colonies

Abolitionists from the North worked to ask the Mexican government to create communities for free and runaway Black people. Benjamin Lundy, a member of the Quaker religion, tried to get support for a colony in what is now Texas during the early 1830s. His efforts failed because Texas allowed slavery after it separated from Mexico and became the Republic of Texas in 1836. Black Seminoles successfully asked for land and created a colony in 1852. Their descendants still own that land today.

The Texas Runaway Slave Project, based at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, has studied advertisements about runaway slaves that appeared in 19,000 newspaper editions from the mid-1800s.

Alice L. Baumgartner has researched how many people escaped slavery in the Southern states to find freedom in Mexico. She wrote a book titled South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War. Thomas Mareite completed a research paper for a doctorate at Leiden University about the social and political lives of enslaved people who fled the U.S. South to Mexico. His work is titled Conditional Freedom: Free Soil and Fugitive Slaves from the U.S. South to Mexico's Northeast, 1803–1861. Roseann Bacha-Garza, from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, has led historical archaeology projects and studied enslaved people who escaped to Mexico. Mekala Audain wrote a chapter titled "A Scheme to Desert: The Louisiana Purchase and Freedom Seekers in the Louisiana-Texas Borderlands, 1804–1806" in the book In Search of Liberty: African American Internationalism in the Nineteenth-Century Atlantic World. Maria Esther Hammack finished her doctoral research on this topic in 2021 at the University of Texas at Austin.

"Reverse Underground Railroad"

Freedom seekers were not the only Black people in danger from slave catchers. In the Deep South, where cotton farming required many workers, strong and healthy Black people in their working and childbearing years were considered very valuable. Both people who had been enslaved before and those who were free were sometimes kidnapped and forced into slavery. For example, Solomon Northup, a free Black man from New York, was kidnapped by Southern slavers while visiting Washington, DC. "Certificates of freedom," also called "free papers," were official documents that proved a Black person was not enslaved. However, these papers could be lost or stolen, so they did not always protect people from being captured. Some buildings, like the Crenshaw House in far-southeastern Illinois, were places where free Black people were sold into slavery. These locations are part of the "Reverse Underground Railroad," a term used to describe the forced movement of free Black individuals into slavery.

American Revolutionary War routes (1775 to 1783)

During the American Revolutionary War, enslaved people escaped from their owners and fled to British forces, Canada, Florida, and Native American lands. Lord Dunmore, the last Royal Governor of Virginia, planned to weaken American colonists by issuing a proclamation in 1775. This statement offered freedom to enslaved people who left their American colonial masters and joined the British. A PBS and National Park Service article states that this proclamation led to about 100,000 enslaved people escaping during the war. American colonial officers received many requests to return escaped slaves. In November 1775, Dunmore created a military unit of 300 freedom seekers in North Carolina called "the Ethiopian Regiment." In Virginia, 800 freedom seekers joined the regiment. American colonists tried to stop freedom seekers from joining the British by sending slave patrols to catch runaways and by publishing newspapers and editorials that claimed the British would not keep their promise of granting freedom to runaway slaves. Thousands of free and enslaved Black people fought with the British to gain freedom. These people were called Black Loyalists. Black Loyalists who served with the British for one year received Certificates of Freedom and were sent to live as free people in the British colonies of the Bahamas and Jamaica, or to Canada. Between 1783 and 1785, 3,000 enslaved and free Black Americans settled in the British colony of Nova Scotia, Canada. Other enslaved people ran away to join the Continental Army or Patriot militias. Black Americans who fought in the Continental Army were called Black Patriots, and some earned their freedom through their military service. Some enslaved runaways used the war as a chance to escape by taking their enslaver's horse.

War of 1812 routes

During the War of 1812, 700 enslaved people in Maryland escaped from slavery. Before the war, freedom seekers traveled from the United States to the Michigan Territory by crossing the Detroit River. Over time, more African Americans escaped to the territory. William Hull, the governor of the territory, gave Peter Denison, an enslaved man, a written permission to form a group of free Black men and escaped slaves. These men were given weapons and training, but Hull ended the group. Some of the Black men in the group escaped to British Canada. In the 18th century, slavery was practiced in Canada, but by 1793, slavery was stopped. However, some Black Canadians remained enslaved. During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, freedom seekers traveled south from British Canada to safe places in the Old Northwest region of the United States. By the time of the War of 1812, laws in British Canada had banned slavery. This change made the final destinations of freedom seekers in the United States shift north to Canada. In the summer of 1812, Hull declared that enslaved runaways and free Black people in the Michigan Territory were free citizens. When war began with Britain, Black citizens of Michigan were given weapons to fight against the British. After his military service, Peter Denison and his family left Michigan and moved north to Canada.

Black Refugees

In April 1814, the British Army offered freedom to enslaved Black Americans who joined the British military or chose to live freely in British colonies. In the Chesapeake Region of Virginia and Maryland and along the coasts of Georgia, about 4,000 enslaved Black Americans fled slavery. Of these 4,000 people seeking freedom, 2,000 traveled by ship to Nova Scotia between September 1813 and August 1816. These ships were owned by the British government or hired by the British. They were sent to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in Canada. Another 400 people were sent to Trinidad in the Caribbean. The Black individuals who settled in British Canada are called Black refugees. They escaped slavery in the United States and supported the British during the War of 1812.

Merikens

The Merikins were once enslaved Black Americans who escaped slavery and joined the British military's all-Black group called the Colonial Marines during the War of 1812. After the war ended, they were sent to many British colonies to live as free people. Around 700 of these soldiers went to Trinidad in the Caribbean. Even though slavery was allowed in Trinidad, they were protected by Commander Robert Mitchell. These formerly enslaved Americans called themselves Merikens, which means a shortened version of "Americans." They began new lives in Trinidad by living in six Company Villages in the southern part of the island. The Trinidadian government gave them food, supplies, clothes, and tools to build homes. They also grew their own food, such as corn, pumpkin, plantain, and rice.

The "Saltwater Railroad" freedom route

Between 1821 and 1861, enslaved people who wanted freedom traveled from the Southeastern slave states of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida to the Bahamas using a secret route called the "Saltwater Railroad." Before 1821, Florida was a Spanish colony known as Spanish Florida, where enslaved people who escaped were free under Spanish laws. However, by 1821, Florida became part of the United States. Free Black people in Florida worried they might be forced back into slavery under American laws, so many fled to the Bahamas. From 1821 to 1825, the Southern beaches of Florida were a safe place for freedom seekers to board boats that traveled to the Bahamas. Some freedom seekers also built their own canoes and boats to sail to the Bahamas without help.

By 1825, the construction of the Cape Florida Lighthouse (in what is now Miami-Dade County) made it harder for enslaved people to escape at night. The bright light from the lighthouse helped sailors navigate the Florida Reef but made it easier for people to see escaping slaves. The Bahamas was a British-controlled island where Black people could own land, attend school, and legally marry. In 1825, Britain announced that any enslaved people who reached British-controlled lands would be free. This rule encouraged more enslaved people in the United States to escape to the Bahamas. By the 1830s, historians believe at least 6,000 freedom seekers reached the Bahamas. By the 1840s, the Bahamas had more escaped enslaved people than any other British colony in the Caribbean. Britain’s efforts to free enslaved Americans caused tension with the United States. In 1841, enslaved people on the slave ship Creole rebelled. The ship left Virginia with over 100 enslaved people heading to New Orleans, Louisiana. The enslaved people took control of the ship and sailed it to Nassau in the Bahamas. This event gained international attention, and the escapees were later released.

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 required that suspected runaway enslaved people be taken before a special court official called a commissioner. These individuals did not have the right to a jury trial or to speak for themselves in court. Between 1850 and 1860, 343 people seeking freedom were brought before commissioners, and 332 were sent back into slavery. Commissioners were paid $10 if they ruled in favor of a slaveholder and $5 if they ruled in favor of an enslaved person. Enslaved people were not formally accused of a crime. A law officer or private slave-catcher only needed to swear an oath to obtain a court order to return enslaved people as property. People who helped freedom seekers escape faced a fine of $1,000.

Southern states had more influence in Congress because their population counts included three-fifths of their enslaved people. Southern lawmakers passed the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 because they were frustrated that people in the North, including government officials, sometimes helped enslaved people escape. In some Northern cities, slave catchers needed police protection to carry out their work.

According to historian Andrew Delbanco, the 1850 law helped Northerners understand that slavery was not only a Southern issue. Before the Civil War, the nation was divided about how to handle enslaved people who fled. The Fugitive Slave Act increased tensions because Southern slaveholders gained the power to return freedom seekers to the South, and Northerners were legally required to help return escaped enslaved people.

Some freedom seekers, such as Anthony Burns, John Price, Shadrach Minkins, Stephen Pembroke and his sons, were arrested under the law. Abolitionists used these cases to highlight the issue of slavery in national politics, arguing that enslaved people’s escapes showed the need to end slavery.

After the law passed, many African Americans in Northern cities moved to Canada to avoid being captured and returned to slavery. This was because Britain had abolished slavery in Canada and the British Empire on August 1, 1834. In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, many Black hotel workers left for Canada. In Columbia, Pennsylvania, the Black population dropped by half. Between mid-February and early March 1851, about 100 free African Americans and fugitives fled Boston. Abolitionists in Detroit, Michigan, helped 1,200 people reach Canada. By December 1850, it is estimated that 3,000 African Americans had taken refuge in Canada.

American Civil War routes (1861 to 1865)

During the American Civil War, the Union Army captured Southern towns such as Beaufort, South Carolina, and St. Simons Island, Georgia, and set up camps. As a result, enslaved people on nearby plantations escaped slavery and ran to Union lines for freedom and to join the Union Army. American historian Eric Foner explains in his book Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad that the Civil War changed opportunities for enslaved people seeking freedom. As soon as Union troops arrived, enslaved people sought refuge with the Union. Susie King Taylor was born enslaved in Liberty County, Georgia, and escaped slavery with her family to Union lines in St. Catherine's Island, Georgia, with the help of her uncle, who placed her on a federal gunboat near Confederate-held Fort Pulaski. Thousands of enslaved Black Americans also fled to Union lines in the South Carolina Sea Islands. In 1861, Jarvis Harvey escaped slavery and sailed to Union lines at Fortress Monroe, Virginia. Robert Sutton was born enslaved on the Alberti Plantation in Florida and escaped by building a canoe and sailing to Port Royal, South Carolina, where Black Americans were freed after the Battle of Port Royal and joined the 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Prince Rivers escaped slavery and found freedom in Union lines in Port Royal, South Carolina, after his enslaver fled Beaufort upon the arrival of the Union Navy and Army. Rivers later joined the 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment. On May 12, 1862, Robert Smalls and sixteen enslaved people escaped slavery during the Civil War on a Confederate ship and sailed it out of Charleston Harbor to a Union blockade in South Carolina.

Underground Railroad agents adjusted their escape plans because many freedom seekers fled to Union-occupied areas instead of the North. For example, Kansas became a free state in 1861, and slavery was banned there. During the Civil War, abolitionists, free staters, and Jayhawkers helped enslaved people from Missouri (a slave state near Kansas) escape slavery and brought them to Kansas as contraband of war. An article from the National Park Service explains that when Union troops arrived in border states, on the Atlantic coast, and in the lower Mississippi Valley, thousands of enslaved people fled to Union camps. They became "contraband," or confiscated property of war. Many found work within Union lines, and their families joined them.

The term "contraband" was used by Union General Benjamin Butler to describe enslaved people who escaped slavery. In 1861, three enslaved men—Shepard Mallory, Frank Baker, and James Townsend—escaped slavery in Norfolk, Virginia, and fled to Union lines at Fort Monroe. Butler refused to return them under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, which required escaped slaves to be sent back to their enslavers. Instead, Butler kept them because they were "property" of the Confederate States, not the United States. An article from the National Trust for Historical Preservation explains that Butler argued Virginia had seceded from the Union, so he no longer had a legal duty to return the runaways. He declared them "contraband," or property to be used by the enemy against the Union.

As the Civil War continued, areas in the South and border states became refugee camps for freedom seekers. Washington, D.C., became a major refugee area during the war. On April 16, 1862, Congress passed the Compensated Emancipation Act, which ended slavery in the District of Columbia. After this law, freedom seekers from Virginia and Maryland escaped and found freedom in Washington, D.C. By 1863, there were 10,000 refugees (former enslaved people) in the city, doubling the Black population there. Enslaved people near Beaufort County, South Carolina, also escaped slavery and fled to Union lines in Beaufort after the Battle of Port Royal on November 7, 1861, when plantation owners fled the area after the arrival of the Union Navy and Army. A refugee camp was created to provide safety and protection to freedom seekers. Initially, there were 60 to 70 runaways, but the number grew to 320. The Union Army struggled to provide enough food and clothing for them. Free men, women, and children in the camp were paid to work as cooks, laundresses, servants, and carpenters. Union forces also occupied Corinth, Mississippi, and enslaved people from nearby plantations escaped to Union lines. To help freedom seekers, General Grenville M. Dodge established the Corinth Contraband Camp, which included homes, schools, hospitals, churches, and paid jobs for African Americans. It is estimated that the camp provided a new life for 6,000 former enslaved people.

Union Navy and Emancipation

During the Civil War, Gideon Welles was the Secretary of the Navy. In September 1861, Welles announced that enslaved and free African Americans could join the Union Navy at the lowest rank of "Boy." Union ships in Southern ports received many runaways who escaped slavery by traveling in small boats to areas controlled by the Union. Benjamin Gould wrote in his journal that by September 22, 1862, eight escaped individuals arrived at the USS Cambridge, and 20 more arrived two weeks later. One of these escapees was William Gould, who later joined the Union Navy and fought against the Confederacy from 1862 to 1865. The Union ship USS Hartford helped free enslaved people while traveling up the Mississippi River. Bartholomew Diggins, who served on the USS Hartford, remembered picking up many enslaved people who came to the ship in small boats wherever they stopped. Other Union ships that helped free enslaved people included the USS Essex and USS Iroquois. Some Union soldiers and sailors returned escaped slaves to their enslavers. By the end of the war, 179,000 formerly enslaved and free Black Americans had served in the Union Army, and 21,000 had served in the Union Navy.

From the American Revolutionary War, through the War of 1812, and the American Civil War, the Underground Railroad helped many African Americans escape slavery.

Legal and political

When conflicts between the North and South led to the Civil War, many Black individuals, both enslaved and free, joined the Union Army. After the Union won the Civil War, on December 6, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed, which banned slavery except as a punishment for a crime. After this law was enacted, in some cases, the Underground Railroad operated in the opposite direction, as people who had fled to Canada returned to the United States.

Frederick Douglass was a writer and speaker who had escaped slavery. In his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), he wrote about the attention given to the supposedly secret Underground Railroad. He stated that while he respected the movement, he believed that publicizing its activities made slave-owners more aware, causing them to become more cautious and making it harder for future enslaved people to escape.

Arrival in Canada

British North America, now known as Canada, was a place many escaped enslaved people wanted to reach. Its long border made it easier to enter from the United States, and it was far from slave catchers. Canada was also beyond the reach of the United States' Fugitive Slave Acts, which forced escaped slaves to be returned to their owners. Slavery had already ended in Canada decades before it did in the United States. Britain officially banned slavery in present-day Canada and most of its colonies in 1833, though slavery had already stopped in Canada earlier in the 19th century because of court decisions that helped enslaved people gain freedom.

Many escaped enslaved people traveled by boat across Lake Erie and Lake Ontario to reach Canada. Most settled in Ontario. It is estimated that over 30,000 people escaped to Canada through the Underground Railroad during its most active 20 years, though U.S. records only show about 6,000. Stories of many fugitives are recorded in the 1872 book The Underground Railroad Records by William Still, an abolitionist who led the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee.

It is believed that at least 30,000 enslaved people, and possibly more than 100,000, escaped to Canada via the Underground Railroad. The largest group settled in Upper Canada, now called Ontario, and was known as Canada West from 1841. Many Black communities formed in Southern Ontario, especially in the area around Niagara Falls, Toronto, and Windsor. Some rural villages in Kent and Essex counties in Ontario were mostly made up of people who had been freed from slavery.

Fort Malden, located in Amherstburg, Ontario, was considered the main entry point for escaped slaves entering Canada. Abolitionist Levi Coffin, who helped over 2,000 fugitives, supported this view. He called Fort Malden "the great landing place" of the Underground Railroad. After 1850, about thirty people crossed to Fort Malden by steamboat each day. The ship Sultana made frequent trips between Great Lakes ports. Its captain, C.W. Appleby, helped move many fugitives from Lake Erie ports to Fort Malden. Others were assisted by William Wells Brown, who had escaped slavery himself. He worked on a Lake Erie steamer and transported many fugitives from Cleveland to Ontario via Buffalo or Detroit. He said, "It is well known that many fugitives escape to Canada through Cleveland… My friends knew I would help them for free, and they always sent people to join me when the boat arrived."

Nova Scotia was another important destination for escaped enslaved people. It was first settled by Black Loyalists during the American Revolution and later by Black Refugees during the War of 1812. Other Black communities formed in Lower Canada (now Quebec) and Vancouver Island. Governor James Douglas encouraged Black immigration to Vancouver Island because he opposed slavery and hoped a large Black community would help prevent the island from joining the United States.

After arriving in Canada, many freedom seekers faced difficult lives. While they were safe from slave catchers, racial discrimination was common. Many had to compete with European immigrants for jobs, and racism was widespread. For example, in 1785, the city of Saint John, New Brunswick, changed its rules to stop Black people from working, selling goods, fishing, or becoming freemen. These rules remained in place until 1870.

When the Civil War began in the United States, many Black refugees left Canada to join the Union Army. Some returned to Canada later, but many stayed in the United States. Thousands of others went back to the American South after the war ended. Many wanted to reunite with family and hoped the changes from emancipation and Reconstruction would improve their lives.

Folklore

Since the 1980s, some people have said that quilt designs were used by enslaved people to send messages about how to escape and find help. Supporters of this idea claim that ten specific quilt patterns were used to tell enslaved people what actions to take. These quilts were hung one at a time on fences as a way to send silent messages to those trying to escape. The code had two purposes: first, to let enslaved people know they should prepare to run away, and second, to give them hints about directions to follow during their journey.

However, many experts disagree with the quilt code theory. The first written record about this idea came from an oral history in 1999, and the first book about it was a children’s book published in 1980. Historians who study quilts and life in America before the Civil War (1820–1860) say there is no proof that such a code existed. Scholars like Pat Cummings and Barbara Brackman have questioned the idea, and Underground Railroad historian Giles Wright wrote a pamphlet explaining why the quilt code is unlikely to be true.

Some sources, such as books and articles, also claim that songs like “Steal Away” or “Follow the Drinking Gourd” had hidden messages that helped enslaved people find their way to freedom. However, these sources rarely provide strong evidence to support these claims. Most scholars believe that while these songs expressed hope for freedom, they did not give direct instructions for escaping slavery.

The Underground Railroad inspired many cultural works. For example, a song called “Song of the Free,” written in 1860, told the story of a man fleeing slavery in Tennessee and traveling to Canada. Each part of the song ends with a line about Canada being a place “where colored men are free.” Slavery was banned in Upper Canada (now Ontario) in 1793. In 1819, John Robinson, the Attorney General of Upper Canada, said that Black people living in Canada were free, and Canadian courts would protect their rights. Slavery in Canada was declining after a court ruling in 1803, and it was completely abolished in 1834.

National Underground Railroad Network

In 1990, a law was passed to help the National Park Service study the Underground Railroad. In 1997, the 105th Congress passed a bill called H.R. 1635, known as the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Act of 1998. President Bill Clinton signed this law into effect in 1998. This law allowed the National Park Service to create the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program. The program’s goal was to find and protect important places linked to the Underground Railroad, share stories about people involved in it, and teach others about its history. The National Park Service has marked many sites in the network, shared stories about people and places, started an essay contest, and holds a national conference about the Underground Railroad every May or June.

The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park, which includes Underground Railroad routes in three counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and Harriet Tubman’s birthplace, was created by President Barack Obama using the Antiquities Act on March 25, 2013. A related park, the Harriet Tubman National Historical Park in Auburn, New York, was established on January 10, 2017. This park focuses on the later years of Harriet Tubman’s life and her work with the Underground Railroad and the movement to end slavery.

International Underground Railroad Month

The month of September is named International Underground Railroad Month because it is the month when Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass escaped slavery.

In popular culture

• The Underground Railroad is a 2016 novel written by Colson Whitehead. It received the 2016 National Book Award and the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
• The Underground Railroad is a 2021 streaming television limited series based on Whitehead’s novel.
• Underground is an American television series that first aired in 2016 on WGN America.

• David Walker (1829) Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World
• Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852) Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• Caroline Lee Hentz (1854) The Planter’s Northern Bride
• William M. Mitchell (1860) The Under-Ground Railroad
• Sarah Hopkins Bradford (1869) Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman; (1896) Harriet Tubman, Moses of Her People
• Barbara Smucker (1977) Underground to Canada

The Underground Railroad was a company created by Tupac Shakur, Big D the Impossible, Shock G, Pee Wee, Jeremy, Raw Fusion, and Live Squad. Its goal was to help young Black men and women make music and start their careers.

In Big Jim and the White Boy, David F. Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson’s upcoming graphic novel retelling of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Big Jim and Huck become members of the Underground Railroad as they travel through the United States during the Civil War to rescue Big Jim’s enslaved family.